Maximum Number of Concurrent Connections - Airport Express

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Maximum Number of Concurrent Connections - Airport Express

Greetings!

(1) What is the maximum number of concurrent connections that the Airport Express can accept?

(2) Secondly, I found this information here:

"Support for WPA requires Mac OS X v10.3 or later. Use of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) reduces the maximum number of network users. When joining an existing wireless network, AirPort Express supports only WPA-Personal. WPA2 requires a Mac computer with an AirPort Extreme Card and Mac OS X v10.3 or later."

We have a half-dozen users coming into the office with PC's and internally we are using WPA2-Personal for security. Given the above, how are they going to connect to our Network? Are we going to have to ramp back our Airport Express units to WPA-Personal?

Many thanks!

Posted on May 17, 2011 4:45 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

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May 17, 2011 4:46 PM in response to Ron73

Standard max is 256 users, so 6 should work without any problem.

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Answer 2

Ron73 Author

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May 17, 2011 4:53 PM in response to Kappy

Kappy, many thanks. That makes absolute sense but I thought I had read that ten was the maximum....

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Answer 3

Bob Timmons

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May 17, 2011 5:02 PM in response to Ron73

(1) What is the maximum number of concurrent connections that the Airport Express can accept?

Ten is the maximum number of devices that can connect to the AirPort Express.

Perhaps Kappy was likely providing you with information about the AirPort Extreme, which can accept a total of about 250 connections, 50 of which could be wireless.

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Answer 4

Ron73 Author

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May 17, 2011 5:07 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Ah, okay. So it's a maximum of 10 Users per Airport Express.

Any thoughts on:

(2) Secondly, I found this information here:

"Support for WPA requires Mac OS X v10.3 or later. Use of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) reduces the maximum number of network users. When joining an existing wireless network, AirPort Express supports only WPA-Personal. WPA2 requires a Mac computer with an AirPort Extreme Card and Mac OS X v10.3 or later."

We have a half-dozen users coming into the office with PC's and internally we are using WPA2-Personal for security. Given the above, how are they going to connect to our Network? Are we going to have to ramp back our Airport Express units to WPA-Personal?

I may be misreading what I've in quotes. I am taking it to say that any PC's introduced into the network will be limited to WPA-Personal.

However, I now believe it to be saying that if the Airport Express units are introduced into an existing network any PC's connecdting to those Airport Express units will be limited to WPA-Personal.

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Answer 5

Kappy

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May 17, 2011 5:09 PM in response to Ron73

I've looked for some verification of an actual number but could not find any in the Apple KBase. However, ten users sounds way to few.

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Answer 6

Bob Timmons

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May 17, 2011 5:11 PM in response to Ron73

I'm a bit confused. You are planning to use the AirPort Express to "create" a wireless network, correct?

If yes, the Express will support the following standards:

WPA2 Personal

WPA/WPA Personal

WEP 128 Bit

WEP 40 Bit

You choose what you want during setup.

WPA/WPA2 Personal would be a good choice to allow virtually any WPA or WPA2 device to connect.

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Answer 7

Bob Timmons

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May 17, 2011 5:15 PM in response to Kappy

However, ten users sounds way to few.

Here is confirmation from Apple:

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

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Answer 8

Ron73 Author

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May 17, 2011 5:16 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Hi Bob,

What threw me is this:

"Support for WPA requires Mac OS X v10.3 or later. Use of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) reduces the maximum number of network users. When joining an existing wireless network, AirPort Express supports only WPA-Personal. WPA2 requires a Mac computer with an AirPort Extreme Card and Mac OS X v10.3 or later."

The network we have now is all Airport Express and we have a half-dozen users coming in with PC's. I believe I misread what the above is saying. My initial concern in my mis-read was that these users with PC's would force us to ramp back the encryption to WPA-Personal from it's current WPA2.

I now believe it to be saying that if the Airport Express units are introduced into an existing network any PC's connecdting to those Airport Express units will be limited to WPA-Personal.

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Answer 9

Ron73 Author

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May 17, 2011 5:18 PM in response to Kappy

Kappy, Bob is correct. For the Airport Express it's a maximum of ten. Thanks anyway though!

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Answer 10

Bob Timmons

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192,184 points

May 17, 2011 5:22 PM in response to Ron73

I now believe it to be saying that if the Airport Express units are introduced into an existing network any PC's connecdting to those Airport Express units will be limited to WPA-Personal.

Can you provide an example of how the AirPort Expess will be connected to the network that you are designing?

I have no trouble configuring the Express to provide any level of security (including none) with any network.

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Answer 11

Ron73 Author

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May 17, 2011 5:52 PM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob,

Thanks. The network - all Airport Express units - is already in place.

I misunderstood the below to mean that these PC users coming in can only connect at WPA-Personal and not WPA2-Personal. However, what it is saying I now believe is that if the Airport Express unit are themselves joining an existing network you're limited to WPA-Personal ("...When joining an existing wireless network, AirPort Express supports only WPA-Personal. WPA2 requires a Mac computer with an AirPort Extreme Card and Mac OS X v10.3 or later.")

"Support for WPA requires Mac OS X v10.3 or later. Use of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) reduces the maximum number of network users. When joining an existing wireless network, AirPort Express supports only WPA-Personal. WPA2 requires a Mac computer with an AirPort Extreme Card and Mac OS X v10.3 or later."

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